Silent Film of the Month: A Burlesque on Carmen (1915)

 

Studio: Essanay. Director: Charlie Chaplin. Writer: Charlie Chaplin. Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance. Leo White, Jack Henderson, John Rand, May White, Ben Turpin, Wesley Ruggles. Cinematographer: Harry Ensign. 

In my opinion, A Burlesque on Carmen is one of Charlie Chaplin's most underrated films.

AS you can probably tell by the title, this film is a parody of Carmen (both the novella and the Cecil B. DeMille movie). Charlie stars as Darn Hosiery (instead of Don Jose), an honest guard, who is lead astray by the seductive gypsy Carmen (Edna Purviance, Chaplin's main female co-star at this time, starring in over 30 films with him). 

Charlie had made this short and intended it to be a two-reel comedy. This two-reel version is a fast moving and funny short that also shows Charlie's growth as a filmmaker and how he could have been a serious actor. This version was screened briefly in December of 1915 for critics. The Essanay Studio quickly withdrew the film not long afterwards. When Charlie left the Essanay studio, he had left behind cut footage from this movie. The studio decided to take this footage and create a four-reel version of the picture, so that they could still make money off the Charlie Chaplin name. This version of the movie would not only use footage cut out from Chaplin's version but also new footage featuring cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin. Charlie hated this new version stating, "I was so impressed with [Cecil B. DeMille’s movie version of] Carmen that I made a two-reel burlesque of it, my last film with Essanay. After I had left, they put in all the cut-outs and extended it to four reels, which prostrated me and sent me to bed for two days. Although this was a dishonest act, it rendered a service for thereafter I had it stipulated in ever contract that there should be no mutilating, extending or interfering with my finished work." Charlie even tried to sue over this but lost the case.



Unfortunately, after this four-reel version was released the studio found little use for the two-reel version. For decades no one was able to see what Chaplin's version might have been like. Because of this many movie fans, have dismissed this film due to the messiness of the longer version. However in 1999, film preservationist David Shepard worked to help create the closest thing to Charlie's original intent. Shepard would say about restoring this movie, "The version I prepared in 1999 attempts to reconstruct the two-reel version of A Burlesque on Carmen, based upon an affidavit from the lawsuit provided by the Chaplin archives in which Charlie details his intended two-reel version. It was impossible to be guided exactly by Chaplin’s testimony. Some of Chaplin’s original shots were removed in the process of editing the four-reel expansion, which now seems to survive only with reissue intertitles from 1928. A few 1916 shots are retained for continuity in this version and most of the intertitles derive from DeMille, but we hope it captures Chaplin’s intention. For those familiar with DeMille’s production, the two-reel A Burlesque on Carmen is actually one of the better Essanay-Chaplin comedies."

The Moving Picture World, 1920

Moving Picture News, 1920

Motion Picture News, 1919

While the Ben Turpin material added for the four-reel version is terrible (and I am saying this as someone who normally likes Ben Turpin), everything featuring Charlie Chaplin is truly wonderful.  

At the time he made this film, Charlie Chaplin had not yet evolved into the artist, who would comedy and drama. Nor had he shed off the type of pure slapstick that he had done at Keystone a year earlier. Here is Charlie Chaplin the pure slapstick comedian who would kick someone in the pants just because he could. Yet that does not mean that the humor here is crude or primitive. By this time, he had refined the execution of this humor to near perfection. Each gag is timed perfectly and delivered in such a way to give the greatest comedic effect. Because of this, even with how much I love Charlie's Keystone films, I must admit these very similar jokes are definitely funnier here. 

As this film parodies a very elaborate movie, it required more elaborate filmmaking than the average slapstick comedy short. As such this short not only shows Charlie's growth as a comedian but also as a filmmaker. Never before had Charlie made a film that looked as wonderful as this. The attention to detail and the more sophisticated filmmaking makes this truly stand out among the other films he made for Essany. If you find a good restoration of this short, you can see how wonderful this film truly looks. Anyone familiar with the Cecil B. DeMille film will especially love the care that went into capturing the feel of that movie for this parody. While much of the elaborate look of this film comes from the material the short is parodying, this short feels like a look ahead at the even more elaborate and daring feature films, Charlie would later make. 

Below are two versions of this wonderful film. The first is closer to Charlie's original plan for the film and the second features the Ben Turpin subplot. 

Resources Used

The Chaplin Encyclopedia by Glenn Mitchell

https://chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/burlesque-on-carmen-18-december-1915/ 

 

    

Silent Film of the Month: Musty's Vacation (1917)

 

Runtime: 14 Minutes. Studio: Essanay. Director: Louis Myall. Main Cast: Harry Watson Jr., Alma Hanlon, H.H. McCullum.

Like many of you I love the big four of silent comedy (Chalie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon) and have watched their films many times to where they are completely ingrained into my mind. I have never and will never grow tired of the work of these comedic geniuses. However sometimes I like to take some time to watch some of the less well known of the silent movie comedians. Recently I have started watching some shorts from the often forgotten, Harry Watson Jr. Watson played a character called Musty Suffer. Like Harold Lloyd's early character, Willie Work, this character's name was a play on words. Essentially his name describes his condition in these films (Must he suffer?). A typical example of the fun to be had in these shorts is our Silent Film of the Month, Musty's Vacation. 

With the over-the-top clowning that takes place in all of these Musty Suffer films, it should come as no surprise that Harry Watson Jr. had worked in the circus earlier in his career. As part of a comedy team (first named "Me, Him and I") with George Bickel and Ed Lee Wrothe, he had performed not only in circuses, but also vaudeville, burlesque and even Broadway. Wrothe would leave the team and the group would be renamed Bickle and Watson. On some of his films Harry Watson's name is followed by "of Bickle and Watson." Watson had even appeared in the infamous Ziegfeld Follies five times. The Musty Suffer series began in 1916 and one film was released each week. 30 Musty Suffer films were made and of that 30, 24 are known to survive. The films had been in the library of congress since 1959, but for most of those years they have not been seen. In recent years though Ben Model and Steve Massa have thankfully made these comedies available to be watched by all interested movie fans.  

Moving Picture World, 1916

The storyline of this movie is just as bizarre and crazy as you could hope for. Musty wants to eat at a restaurant. However he must pay as he enters. Due to this he gives the cashier a book of meal tickets. The cashier tells him, "That's not your picture. You found this book of meal tickets." After being thrown out, Musty goes to "Dr. A. Skin: Beauty Doctor" so that he can look like the picture on the meal tickets. The procedures to make him look like that man are delightful wild and surreal, employing lots of  Méliès style special effects and over the top slapstick gags. 

Comparing this movie to the work of Chaplin or Lloyd, it can't help but come off as bizarre. This short film is as close as you can come to a live action cartoon and frankly it is zanier than many cartoons. Unlike Chaplin or Lloyd, this movie doesn't have a single foot in reality. However this is just what makes the picture so much fun. There is a delightful creativity and imagination here that I find impossible to resist. This film is also simply laugh out loud funny and what more could you want from a silent comedy.

Moving Picture World, 1917

Moving Picture World, 1916

The following is from an issue of Moving Picture World (Dated April 14, 1917), "Essanay in cooperation with George Kleine has launched a new series of 'Musty Suffer' comedies. These comedies presenting Harry Watson Jr., in the varied 'Mishaps of Musty Suffer,' will have a screen time of approximately fifteen minutes. They are released through the Kleine-Edison-Selig-Essanay Service. 

"Through the co-operative plan, the two films alternate in making the release. The first production entitled 'The Fried Egg Hero,' was released by Essanay April 1. A week later, April 8, the second comedy, entitled 'The Soda Jerker' was released. The remainder of the series will be released as follows: April 15, 'Wet and Dry' by Essanay; April 22 'Truly Rural' by Kleine; April 29, 'The Ladder of Fame' by Essanay; May 6, 'Pure and Simple' by Kleine; May 13, 'Spliced and Iced' by Essanay; May 20, 'Starlight Sleep' by Kleine; May 27, 'Musty B. Young' by Essanay; June 3, 'Musty's Vacation' by Kleine. Filming of entire series has just been completed."      

The following is an article from an issue of Motography Magazine (dated March 4, 1916), "Five of the ten or so single reel comedies produced by George Kleine and known as the 'Musty Suffer' series, were shown for review and generally approved, judging from the frequent and audible chuckles of the onlookers. These subjects are slapstick comedy of a pronounced type and the fact that the vulgar and the coarse have been avoided deserves to be remarked on at the outset. That is a highly commendable thing and exhibitors will doubtless thank the producers on that account first of all. 

"These pictures in the main differ considerably from the usual run of screen comedies. The actors are from the speaking stage and their business is of the vaudeville and musical comedy style more than it is of pictures, which have grown away from the stage to quite an extent in slapstick comedy. Harry Watson is Musty Suffer, and his partner, George Bickle is Willie Work. Supporting them are several well known comedy actors; notably Dan Crimmins and Rose Gore (the well known Crimmins and Gore team) and Crissy Fitzgerald.

"Watson is most prominent and in each picture he is funny, there is a distinction between attempting to be comical and really being comical. Watson contorts his face and wears the most ridiculous sort of clothes or rags to good effect. Bickle and Watson perform with the boxing gloves in 'Hold Fast,' and despite the fact that comedy prize fights have been done and done again in pictures, everybody will laugh at this one.

"Each one of these five releases shown has a goodly of laughable incidents, and the 'Musty Suffer' series should be ranked with the best productions of the slapstick variety. In the five reels there was one pie thrown, once a man used pistols, there were no siphon bottles nor was there a policeman in sight; all of which is to bear out the statement that the 'Musty Suffer' pictures are a bit different, and wherever there is a demand for slapstick comedies they will fill the bill splendidly." 

 For anyone interested this film can be found on YouTube.

Resources Used

https://mediahistoryproject.org/

https://travsd.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/stars-of-slapstick-103-harry-watson-jr/

https://undercrankproductions.com/the-mishaps-of-musty-suffer/